Enthusiastically Self-Employed: business tips, marketing tips, and LinkedIn tips for coaches, consultants, speakers, authors, solopreneurs & small business owners
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Enthusiastically Self-Employed: business tips, marketing tips, and LinkedIn tips for coaches, consultants, speakers, authors, solopreneurs & small business owners
Why Mindset Matters In Business Growth with Terry Bean Ep 143
Why Mindset Matters In Business Growth with Terry Bean Ep 143
First aired on YouTube on March 26, 2024.
Watch it on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/89y2g4ptRjo?sub_confirmation=1
Key Tips from Terry Bean
- Embrace a Growth Mindset: Be open to learning and improvement. Understand that challenges are opportunities for growth. (00:04:36)
- Cultivate an Abundance Mentality: Share knowledge and opportunities with others. Believe that there is enough for everyone to succeed. (00:06:28)
- Practice Co-opetition: Collaborate with competitors to create a stronger industry. Find ways to work together for mutual benefit. (00:06:49)
- Be Intentional: Focus on your core offerings and avoid distractions. Don't be afraid to say no to opportunities that don't align with your goals. (00:23:31)
- Invest in Personal Branding: Build a strong personal brand that reflects your values and expertise. This will attract ideal clients and opportunities. (00:21:23)
- Build Genuine Relationships: Network with others to build strong relationships. Focus on quality over quantity. (00:19:28)
- Continuously Learn and Adapt: Stay up-to-date on industry trends and develop new skills. Be willing to adapt to change. (00:04:36)
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My name is Brenda Meller. I'm a LinkedIn coach, consultant, speaker, and author. My company is Meller Marketing and I help business professionals get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie.
Visit mellermarketing.com
Let's connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brendameller
(click MORE to invite me to connect and mention you listened to my podcast)
Good afternoon, good evening, good morning, depending on where in the world you're watching from and what time of day you're watching from as well. I just realized here my microphone was far away. You ever have that happen. You're like ready to go and then you're like your mic's kind of not there.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna keep playing with the light the entire time we're on here, so at some point it'll be blinding everyone. Yeah, so same yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same Good. I want to welcome our audience and thank you all so much for joining us. Whether you're watching live or in replay, we'd love it if you could drop a comment below, especially for our live viewers, because right now we're going live on three networks on LinkedIn, on YouTube and on Instagram. So, wherever you're watching us from, just say hello from Detroit, hello from Fraser, hello from White Lake, hello from Canada. Wherever you're joining us from in the world, that lets us know that the live stream is picking up and also lets us know who's watching, because this is the beauty of being live, terry, is you get to reach people from across the world. One of the challenges is sometimes we can't see our audience until they get into the comments, right?
Speaker 2:100% and it's like we time shift all the things we do in our personal life. So the idea of people being like, oh, I'm going to be right there right now at noon and say you'll get here when you get here and we'll see when you do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go, and that's part of the reason I do these shows starting at 12.05. I'm always thinking if you've got meetings back to back or maybe your last meeting ended at 11, you need to grab lunch bio break and get in front of the computer. You got five minutes before my show starts. There you go, while we are waiting for any of those comments to start coming in. Terry, I'm going to just let you talk a little bit about yourself, and I've known you for, I want to say, 2008, 2009, 2010. It's been a bit, though, since we've known each other, and I know a bit about you and what you're doing with your business, but I'd like you to take a few minutes and tell people what do you do, who do you help and what do you help them with?
Speaker 2:Yesterday was our 15 year anniversary, Brenda.
Speaker 1:It was. I saw it in.
Speaker 2:Facebook memories Yep, and I commented on the post but I didn't actually tag you. But we had debated whether or not it was an Automation Alley event and it was the one that I mentioned where I had met Dave Fanik from Kelly Services and a few other people that were at that, and Scott Monty and Derek Marabon and Charlie Wahlberg.
Speaker 1:Wow, so many legends under one roof. That was like the we Are the World video of Southeast Metro Detroit marketing. We were all like in the room where it happened, right it was Absolutely, and no one got shot.
Speaker 2:Not a bad thing.
Speaker 1:Not bad.
Speaker 2:It was very nice. No, yeah, so that was literally yesterday's Facebook memory because we were talking about it. So 15 years, 2009. So for me, I spent most of my time helping people grow, and it could be you as an individual, it could be you as a brand, it could be your company and a brand, and it could be your entire culture and company as a whole right, your actual business. I deliver the goods, as I like to call them, through speaking, training and coaching. I don't coach everybody. I'm pretty selective in where I spend time and a little bit selective on where I'll speak and train as well. But less I love the idea of helping people reach new audiences, think new thoughts and get connected to the ideas, the opportunities and the people they need to grow. That's me.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and you do it so well, terry, and I remember that day being in the room with you and, oh my gosh, terry Bean he's this legend and I think it was probably the. I don't know if it was the first I heard of you or not, but then we connected and we've remained connections and grown to become friends over the years as well, and it's been just such a joy to watch your journey and to continue to support you by the sidelines, and today we're talking. My friends, you can see the topic right above us here it's mindset matters, building you, your business and your brand, and this is definitely something you got down pat here, terry. For folks that are watching, what advice do you have for us?
Speaker 2:It really starts with understanding the difference between what your mindset is right now and what it could be as it expands. So let's look at the two different types of mindsets that most people are familiar with. You have a fixed mind. You know the one that's going to keep you exactly where you are. Everything's safe, everyone's comfortable. We're all huddled in.
Speaker 2:I like Guardians of the Galaxy as a movie, and at the very end, when Groot puts his little branches around and huddles all the Guardians together before they blow up, it's like this nice, warm, cozy cocoon. Fun fact about that even the butterfly, who spends a bunch of time in the cocoon, right the caterpillar, goes in cocoons up and there's some metamorphosis, there's some change going on, but they can't stay in the cocoon and grow right. They have to basically destroy the cocoon to grow into the butterfly. And to me that's the symbolism of the growth mindset. Right, where you're outside of the comfort zone, you're looking at things in a different way. Your perception is wide, open, you're not just limited and focused on things. You're creating new experiences and new opportunities and new connections and relationships. And so there's my opening gambit what do you think?
Speaker 2:Fixed mindset versus growth mindset.
Speaker 1:Absolutely growth mindset. I have to believe from watching you grow in yourself and your business over the years, this is something that you've applied yourself into your own journey. Is this something you're also helping others with? Or tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me start by complimenting you and your beyond growth mindset. Into the abundant mindset right, there's layers of everything and when you reach that abundance space, you fully recognize that there's more than enough for me and everybody else. And you start sharing and you start collaborating and you bring people on your platform and give them the opportunity to share with your audience. That's you, lady, that's all you. So thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Can I just interrupt you right now, because people that have been following me for a while, you frequently hear me talking about coopetition and I will always give credit to this guy right here, terry Bean, and I'll say I heard it first from Terry and Terry will say and you heard it from a book, some author is that right?
Speaker 2:So I said comparation a bunch of times, right, I like was like, hey, we got to take our competitors and we've got to cooperate with them. That sounds like comparation. And then one day I read coopetition and I was like, damn, that's a way better word, that's a way better word. I started 313D love. It's now known as 313 day way better word. So I've got lots of good ideas, but they need to be shaped a little bit to get to greatness.
Speaker 1:Oh, I give you the shout out every time I use that phrase. Coopetition, and back in the day, I used to have a LinkedIn rock stars list where I would publish and I had some LinkedIn trainers and coaches, and then I had people that were just really awesome on the platform and then I had people that were like a hundred thousand followers and above, and I did run that for a few years, but I would frequently talk about like why would I shine the spotlight on other people that are doing the same thing that I do? And it is. It all comes back to that abundance mentality and that spirit of competition, and every time I use that word, I'm like heard it from Terry Bean, cause I never liked to take credit. I'm like that was him, but I think that's, would you say, that's part of the abundance mentality is not like being so selfish and taking credit for things where you can give it to others. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and we talked about the idea of shining the light on others right, and it positions you in a really good way. One of the reasons I tell people to write a recommendation on LinkedIn is you get to live rent free on someone else's profile, and a well-written recommendation is going to say as much about you as it does the person you're writing about, and I love those aspects. But what I know about shining the light, and what I've witnessed and experienced over the last 17, 18 years of being a consistent lighthouse, is occasionally, that light reflects back on you too. So not only are you going to make somebody's day, make them feel better, put them in a better position.
Speaker 2:There's a little selfish, altruistic nature that goes into some of that too, and so sometimes the people that are abundantly selfish might need to look at it from oh, I'm going to get something out of this. So I'm going to encourage you, selfish people, to give too, because you might find some value. Those of us who do it because it's just the right thing to do and it feels good to serve other people. You don't need encouragement, you're going to do it anyway.
Speaker 1:But even for those people who might feel like they're just doing this just for the goodness of others and for society and to help others, Come into the day. Terry, this show, I call it enthusiastically self-employed and you and I cannot be enthusiastically self-employed unless we have people paying for our services. So we have to make money, we have to deliver value so that people are saying nice things about us and they were getting those referrals. But if we want to have this abundance mentality and we are giving for it I love how you say it yeah, Giving a recommendation, you're doing it for them. But there may be this little ulterior motive like you're gaining real estate on your profile that might motivate you to do. But we are business owners. We have to make money to stay in business, Otherwise we got to go find one of those corporate J-O-Bs and get back and do it again.
Speaker 1:But I don't think there's anything wrong, but I love how sometimes you got to appeal to those a bit of those selfish or those bottom line business senses. I think that's what you're saying.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. Because, to your point, you don't stay self-employed unless the cash register is not ringing and the way.
Speaker 1:I won't speak for your world, but the way my world works.
Speaker 2:There are times when that roller coaster gets dangerously close to smashing into the ground.
Speaker 2:And I don't know what I'm going to do other than I'm going to sit here and pick up all the pieces, put them back together and start again Again, because that's the mindset piece too, is there's nothing that can truly derail you except for you. And so, if you take some level of ownership of that and some responsibility, I have a friend of mine that used to always say nobody is coming to save you. And in that thought process is it puts you out on an island all by yourself in the middle of an ocean, and it's empowering as all get out. That says listen, if it is to be, it is up to me. Right, those 10 powerful two letter words, and we have to keep that in mind. That said, we can't run around just doing things full heartedly because we're oh my mindset's straight and I'm going to just keep smashing my face into this wall, regardless of how bloody it gets. So that's a challenge.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know. You've been really locked in on doing LinkedIn and marketing and helping people get their slice of the pie for a long time. What kind of iterations have you changed in your business over the? I'm trying to remember when we first met at the office in Royal Oak. It feels like it was 2016, 2017.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I when I left corporate. Is that where you're referring to that meeting when I, after I had left corporate and had I made the decision I was done with corporate at that time, or was I still on the fence?
Speaker 2:You were fence sitting and we had a conversation about the pros and cons of both. You had some interviews set up and you were talking about maybe I should do this consulting thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then I was reaching out to my trusted network, like the people that I knew were rocking it along the sidelines and seemed to be really enjoying it and seemed to be successful, and I was interviewing you all like how did you make it happen? And am I crazy for thinking about going over to this side of the world and not staying on this side? But I knew that and we're here talking today about mindset matters, building you, your business and your brand and what I have always known about Terry and if you follow Terry, drop a comment and let me know right now. But if you follow Terry, there are certain things that are true. Terry's a really smart guy. He's super connected, he's always willing to make referrals or to help you and he's a big believer of this abundance mentality and pay it forward. But I consistently get value from you and I'm on your email list. I follow your social media posts. We're here on LinkedIn, we're on Facebook together and there's so many things that when you go through the process of thinking about where you want to go with your business, paths that you can go on, but I've always been a believer of I don't need to create that path.
Speaker 1:Let me look at other people and how they've done it and I think that was part of our conversation Like how did you do it? Because it seems to me a pretty a lot of us grew up with corporate is the path you go through. You go to college, you get your job, you move up to the C-suite. You keep climbing the ladder and then at some point you're like wait a minute, there's a whole other path, like how do you get off? How do you get off the corporate ladder and move on to this new path? Did you do the same kind of thing going through your journey, terry? Or how did you get there?
Speaker 2:God, no, Someone pushed the ladder over and I just jumped. You get out of here. I was 27,. I think the first time I entered the world of entrepreneurship, I was a recruiter doing some staffing in the IT space right before Y2K so 98 timeline and I started looking at what the compensation model right. I'm like wait a second. I'm doing 100% of the work and getting 24% of the compensation. This is really dumb.
Speaker 1:Why do I do?
Speaker 2:this, and so I was like I could do this on my own. They don't. They didn't have any name recognition. It was a small local firm in Columbus Ohio, the parent company. People knew they were award winning, but the division I was in was like started by the son-in-law or something.
Speaker 2:And it was like this is dumb. I go do this on my own and that, uh, that freedom that everybody loves to talk about, that ability to do what you want with who you want, was gorgeous to me, and the idea of I'm going to, I'm going to find out what I'm really worth right now, and I set an audacious goal for me. I wanted to earn fifty thousand,000 in a three-month period. And I'd never done anything like that at that time I was 27. And I failed. I earned $46,500 in that period.
Speaker 1:Wait a minute. You failed by $500?. Can we just rewind for just a second here? Fail, massive fail. Can we rewind?
Speaker 2:and for just a second here Fail, massive fail.
Speaker 1:Can we rewind and reframe a little bit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's not it.
Speaker 1:That's one of the best stories I've ever heard right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was like it was addictive and so I did that for a couple of years. I moved back up here to Detroit in 2000. And I had been running a networking group down in Columbus, ohio, so I had this. I was pretty sure I was like within three degrees of anybody in town there and when I came up here I was like whoa, I know my college buddies, I know some friends from family, that was it. And so I had to restart and do it all over again and I never found I didn't immediately find what I had in Columbus.
Speaker 2:And like an entrepreneur. I created it and that's where Motor City Connect started in 2005. I was like I need a group, like I had, and so I partnered with somebody and we started that and we were going to start a LinkedIn group for Motor City Connect. But back in 05, linkedin wasn't handing out LinkedIn groups like they were chiclets. Like they do now. Everybody can get one today.
Speaker 1:I couldn't get a link. Were you ever involved in that LinkedIn Detroit local meetup or was that in my mind? I feel like you were, but maybe I'm I didn't start it.
Speaker 2:I got roped into it and I'm still an admin on that page. I don't know if anything's happened. Christy Olsen-Kot was one of the people that was involved in it, and so she had reached out and said let's do an event together. And I was like all right, first wine sounds fun, let's go.
Speaker 1:And so she's a trip, trip. I don't know if you've ever met her in person she's, I have.
Speaker 2:She was at the linkedin. Oh, she was at the linkedin-a-thon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, remember, this is before it was linkedin live-a-thon. It was like the linkedin-a-thon and this was in 2019 because I think it was the summer before the pandemic and the world changed and now we're coming back to it. But yeah, I met her in person, in person through that. But you remind me of and I can't think of the name in the movie. Maybe, as I've described it, if you pull a person out of a situation and you take them down to nothing and you put them in another situation, they will build themselves back up to where they were all over again.
Speaker 1:And I can't think of the name in the movie, but take Terry out of Columbus, where you were an Uber networker and you knew everyone. You were three degrees away and moved Terry to Metro Detroit. Terry will do that all over again because that is in your DNA and we're here today talking about mindset matters building you, your business and your brand. You will be that. I see that at least Terry. You will be that wherever you go. It might take you some time to rebuild it, but you will be that wherever you go. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 2:It's interesting because just between you and I, nobody else paying attention.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I've contemplated leaving Ken's here we finally got a comment.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Ken. Dang it, Ken. You're ruining my theory. If Ken's here, I can't even say it. Now it's over. There's a part of me that's like looking at what's next. I'm not going to stay in the Detroit area forever. I'm going to go somewhere Because, for a myriad of different reasons, it's probably about time to do that. I'm not doing it anytime soon. This isn't a formal announcement.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, does your wife know, announcing this on LinkedIn without talking to the family first.
Speaker 2:We're debating which beach right, which island are we looking at, is the big conversation in my house. All that said, I will probably end up doing it all over again, right, and it's not because I want to, it's because it's who I am, right At my core. It says your guide to connectedness. Under my name, I'm a connector, right. I'm a promoter, I'm a guy that is here to serve, and that's my belief that we're all here to serve. And so what do they say? Be the example of the change you want to see in the world. Isn't that a Gandhiism, right? Be the change you want to see in the world. Isn't that a Gandhiism, right? Be the change you want to see in the world. And so I just try and live that to my best ability. My secret, little goal every single day is connect three people to opportunities that are going to make their lives better, and I've been doing that for 16, 17 years.
Speaker 2:And it's just low key and subtle and introduce here and there, and sometimes I get to go do 300 at a time if I'm on stage, right.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yeah, I count those. Yeah, I see. Annette remembered our movie. It's trading, trading places. I think Dan Aykroyd and it was an Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 2:Eddie Murphy, yeah Great.
Speaker 1:Dan was like the big executive and they, they did. I don't remember what they did in the movie, but like they pulled him out of the situation he had to build in his his career back up again.
Speaker 2:But and that's saying, is the nature versus nurture and they bet a dollar that was the brothers that own the big stock company. They bet a dollar that they could make him poor and make Eddie Murphy act like a wealthy fella. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it all is the end of the movie. And then there was even like a scene that they pulled from that movie that they did as a feature in Was it coming to America? It was like they pulled out a feature. It was nice how they did a little bit of a bridge there. But I think it comes down to when you are, you do have the right mindset in place, right, you can create whatever you want, whatever type of success you want out of it. But I also want you to touch on what's the differentiation between you, if you are a solopreneur, and your business and your brand is there. What's, what would you say, is the difference?
Speaker 2:there. I think there's not even an arm length right. I think there's about a hand length of distance between you and your brand as a solopreneur.
Speaker 2:And so it's interesting we're having this conversation because I was just doing a review of my website with a friend of mine who is website with a friend of mine who is unbiased and willing to share openly and provide that real deal feedback, as opposed to that blowing smoke feedback which isn't really that helpful. So for me it's. I want to pour as much of who Terry Bean is into and through that brand. So I want you to feel it right. I want to create an emotional and an energetic connection with the people that are thinking about working with me and I want to put an energetic repulsion to the people who are not going to be a good fit for me.
Speaker 2:I use some of that stuff to disqualify people long before there's any conversation, and I'm fine with it. I don't like finding out we're not a fit after we've signed an agreement or after we've started doing the work. I want to find that out before I even meet you. I don't want to meet you, that's okay. There's plenty of people that you're going to love and that will love working with you. Maybe we're not, that that's okay.
Speaker 1:It's so funny. You talk about this because you're repelling the wrong people. And if you're a new entrepreneur, a new solopreneur, new to being self-employed, you're probably like Terry and I did in the beginning. You will take any and all clients and jobs and requests and they'll say can you build a website? Yeah, I can build a website. Can you do social media management? Yeah, I can do social media management. What I really love to do is LinkedIn, but I will do anything because I just need to get this thing off the ground.
Speaker 1:And then at some point you start going no, it's not really a service that I do, but I can refer you to someone else. And then it's almost like, if I think about it, there's like a timeline. Then there's a point in time where you start firing prospects before they become clients. Like you're not. You pull yourself out of that scenario because it's not going to be a good fit, and not in a negative way, not like in a mean way, like you're a bad person. I don't want to work with you. It's just I don't think that we would be a good fit. But I wish you the best of luck. Would you agree and do you have anything to add to that?
Speaker 2:A million trillion percent One. We started off with a line card that's like this. We got into business to do this thing that we really love and, like you said, somebody says, oh hey, you were really good at this, can you do this? Oh, of course I can do that. Now our line card's this, now our line card's this and this, and now, five years in, we're doing a bunch of crap. We can't stand, and if we would have been really intentional about referring that stuff out, we would have built a stronger business. We would have built a stronger network where we're focused on the core, offering that we love and supporting a great community of referral partners that we can exchange opportunities with, which is an amazing way to go, and that speaks to that abundant mindset and we're not frustrated, our clients are happier and we're living in our sweet spot instead of oh my gosh. As far as the dealing with people we don't want to deal with, I don't think you can start that too early.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you come from a place of knowledge and wisdom, saying that now Talk to Terry back in the first year of his business, and you would not have I probably would not have been able to convince yourself otherwise, because that Terry was like no, we need money, we need income, we need to keep this thing afloat. And it's really hard to say no, even though in the back of your mind you might be going, yes, probably not a great fit, but I just need the money.
Speaker 2:I got fired. I didn't get fired, I got laid off from my last real job before joining the insurance company for a minute during COVID In 2007,. I got let go from a telecom company because they had basically downsized 500 people and I was a recruiter. They're like we're not really hiring, you can go now. And in the interim of knowing that was coming, I got introduced to somebody that needed some recruiting work and I was. He was a sales. He owned a it doesn't matter, he owned a sales company and I was recruiting salespeople for him. And I met with him one day and he yelled at his person up and down one side of the other and I was uncomfortable. I was 35. So this was my second, my second foray technically third into self entrepreneurship and I I said to him at one point I'm like this is really uncomfortable. Should I go out and wait in the hallway while you finish this conversation? And he said you'll just sit there and it'll be fine.
Speaker 1:Did he want you to see it? Do you think? Was he doing it for show, like banging his chest and making his admin feel bad and then having another person watching it? Do you think?
Speaker 2:It was just who. He was right. It was so weird. And so I'm in there to recruit people to join his company. He hands me the retainer check, I leave, I go home, I tell my wife, who knows that this little bit of money is more than I'm going to be making for a minute and I told her I'm like, I'm sick to my stomach. I can't even imagine bringing people in. She's like do the right thing.
Speaker 1:And I said all right, you're right.
Speaker 2:And I walked back in there because it was over the weekend and I was supposed to meet with him first thing on Monday or Tuesday morning in my car. I left my car running and he's hey, your car's still on. I said, yeah, I'm not staying.
Speaker 1:He's what do you mean? You're not staying?
Speaker 2:I'm like I came here to give you this money back. There's no way I could bring people into this environment and feel good about it. No chance.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you a question. Nowadays you have many friends in the HR and leadership and training and development community. Given that situation, is there someone you know now that could help to improve the culture and his mindset?
Speaker 2:On paper a million percent. In practice, I'm pretty good at fixing people right, like I'm pretty good, and I like maybe I wasn't quite ready for that challenge, maybe 50, however old I am now, that was a while back, yeah yeah, this is. It was 08, so so yeah, 16 years ago. So yeah, it's yeah, he was a flipping mess.
Speaker 1:The person has to be open to those suggestions and open to improving and open to knowing that's a toxic culture and in in this scenario, the person's. No, I wanted you to see it. So there's nothing that he thought, that he wasn't embarrassed about it, he wasn't thinking there was anything wrong with it.
Speaker 2:He was just disgusting, right, just disgusting, and so that, to me, is a fixed mindset, right? That's. This is how we do it, this is how we're always going to do it, and it's your problem and not mine. He saw nothing wrong with it, and people like that sometimes find some rewards and they find some success, and it's unfortunate, but it's very real. It's very real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny how things you come. I don't want to say full circle, but you grow and evolve yourself as you and your business and your brand. You're growing and evolving as well and I just see you as this powerhouse, terry, and you're just such a positive person. And I have to tell a quick story. When I was first getting my business off of the ground, I called you one day and I didn't say who I was and I thought you knew who I was and you remember this conversation and I was pricing. This is the kind of this will just show you that Terry is such a quality person, but he's also a good business person as well. And I called him and I said I'm working on this proposal and I didn't introduce myself because I think we've talked before. He has my number in the phone and I probably should have said hey, it's Rhonda.
Speaker 1:But at any rate, we started a conversation, small talk, how are things going? Blah, blah, blah. And I said I'm working on this proposal and I'm not sure how much to charge for training for LinkedIn. I don't know if I said how much would you charge, or how much do you charge, or this is what I'm charging, is that okay. But I said what do you think? And your response was something to the effect of hey, I'm happy to help you, but I don't want to be given all my cards out there and what's to say. I don't remember what your response was, but you wouldn't give me everything. And I was like, and it felt very unnatural for you to say that to me. And I said Terry, I said I'm surprised that you say that and you're and I don't know if you said it first who is that? Or if I said this is Brenda. And then you're like, oh my gosh, because that was my take it all, Brenda.
Speaker 2:I had no idea In that. I honest to God I was. I was driving by a nov, driving by a Novi campus of a particular college when that happened. That campus is gone now and I remember that call like it was yesterday. So, yeah, 100%. I said, oh, who is this? And you told me who it was and I was like, oh yeah, you can totally have all the information.
Speaker 1:But I respected you because if it was some random person calling that you didn't know, I respected the fact that you weren't going to play all your cards out and say this is how much we charge and this is what I do. But I was like then. I was like Terry, it's me, we've had these conversations. I was surprised and you're like, oh my God, and then the conversation completely changed, completely change, and I don't even remember who the client was and whether I got the business or not, but you've always just had such a great reputation of being a connector and being a giver and helping others in the community. I was so delighted to have the chance to bring you on the show here today because your business has grown and changed and evolved and you're currently I don't know if your website is that part of it that changed for your business and the new shift and the new focus Is that kind of being led in part by the evolution of your brand.
Speaker 2:I took a hiatus from being Terry Bean and went to do the insurance thing. During COVID I had a coaching client that said, come here and run sales for me, we're going to do this. And I was like, all right, cool. So I went through and I unbranded and rebranded and then we hit success like two years faster than we thought we were going to. So I was like back on the street If I would have known it was going to be a year, I might not have gone through all these iterations.
Speaker 2:But so it was a year and I was back on the street again and I'm like, all right, let's do all the things differently. And yeah, so I redid, I did, I started with the logo and came up with that and came up with a really clear value proposition and where I'm spending time and energy. And then I did the website and then I got a new system at the end of last year through. That's like this tech stack of all the things in one place and I completely redid the website a second time in less than two years, which is I don't recommend that, but it was cool.
Speaker 1:Can I show you? I have power to do this, but is it OK if I show it, because when you're talking about your logo, I wanted to show it up on screen. And I know you said you're working on your website right now. You've got a great website, I think, but this logo is the intermixing of fire and water. Am I remembering that correctly?
Speaker 2:You got it. Yeah, it's the idea to remind me that when I'm on stage, I got to bring the heat, I got to fire people up, I got to just absolutely set a blaze in their belly. And it's when I'm off stage is to remind myself to be calm, to be cool, to be fluid, to be water, to show up and be all encompassing. And then I had it's all based and I don't think you'll be able to see this, but I have a talisman around my neck that is water and air and fire in the same shape, in the same shape of yin yang, to keep that harmony going. And then I met a guy that does basically took disc and mapped it to earth air, water and fire called behavioral elements, and that's a block down on the page there. But it's like everything just lines up to help us with our behavior.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. I think it's such a powerful brand look, and I did pop up on the screen. If anyone in the audience has any questions for Terry or if you'd like to add your thoughts to the conversation, feel free to drop those in comments. I see we've got Annette and Kenneth kind of popping back and forth in comments as well, and Kenneth just mentioned earlier so important to know your limits and strength. But a lot of us Kenneth, myself, you, terry we've learned this the hard way, but we've learned and we've gained experience. And then experience is shaping us with who we are today.
Speaker 2:right is shaping us with who we are today right A hundred percent. And, kenneth, unfortunately, gosh, darn it. The only way to actually learn it is the hard way, right? If I think about all the times my mom or my dad told me a thing that was going to happen and I was like you guys are nuts. And then fast forward three, five, seven years, and then you had to go back and say, gosh, you were really right about that. How did you know? We don't learn as well through others' experiences as we learn from our own, unfortunately, and so when I talk about coaching, I'm like listen, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to stand there with a flashlight and say if you step there, you're going to fall into a hole that's 30 feet deep. If you step two steps over to the right, it's like a people mover and you're going to get there faster. The choice is going to be yours. I'll lower the rope when you step into the hole, because you're stubborn. Just please get on the people mover. It's literally right there. Yeah, so true.
Speaker 1:But just please get on the people mover. It's literally right there, so true. And you and I both have kids that are now young adults, and this is probably really relatable to you as a parent, and it was to me, because I can tell my son do this, don't do that, and he will not listen to me, but he'll watch it in a TED Talk, he'll see it on a YouTube video, he'll see some influencer saying the same thing thing and he'll come back and say I should do this. And I'm like I literally have been telling you this all along. Why are you not listening to me? It can be very frustrating, but here we go and it's similar to, I think, a lot of experiences we have as parents. We can relate to our coaching clients. I heard our good friend, tina Marie Wolfield, say this on stage once she did a talk and it was entitled something about how being a parent has made me a better HR consultant coach, and there's so many things that we can relate from those perspectives. Any thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:I'm just grateful that it's that scenario because, quite frankly, some of the time I get called in to speak or present or train is because the manager, the leader, is saying I'm beating my face against the wall trying to convey this message and they're not hearing it. So maybe they'll hear it from you and that's how it works, right, that third party delivery system is a value and happy to be that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you need it from the outside perspective coming in, and as we start to wrap up our conversation here today, terry, I want to do a couple of things. First, I want to pull up your LinkedIn profile up on screen, and a lot of you who are in Metro Detroit are probably familiar with the fact that Terry is very big in the TEDx Detroit community and part of the team that puts on that amazing event every year, and you can see the TEDx right in his background on his profile there. Now, terry, are you open to connecting with anyone on LinkedIn and do you have any instructions for people that want to connect with you?
Speaker 2:It's funny. Up until about a year and a half ago, I could tell you that I'd only not connected with one person who said they were a six-month-old baby in their headline. That's funny. I've been a little more discerning, but yeah, overall I'm a very open networker on LinkedIn Darn near promiscuous, as it were. But I don't like everybody. I don't like being spammed four seconds later. I can do without that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Same, and I don't know if you know about this too, but they're moving away from creator mode and they're now giving us the ability to change our default button from follow to connect, even if you had that turned on and I'm already connected with you, so I'm not sure if you have it on your profile or not, but do you know if people, when they visit your profile, is follow the default or do you have connect as a default?
Speaker 2:I think I went back to connect. I think I had follow for a long time, but maybe if someone in the audience isn't connected they can take a look and tell us, because you can only see what you can see. I guess I could go in there. Do they still even have the view like others? See your profile.
Speaker 1:You can view public profile, but it really shows you the logged out of LinkedIn versions. So it says create a LinkedIn account or log into your LinkedIn account to see everything. So you're not going to see follow versus connect. Oh, julie Bryant, julie with the shout out here Julie, is this on Terry's profile Are you seeing follow as his button or are you saying follow as the default or you're responding? We'll give it takes about 30 seconds from the time I say this until the time that Julie hears it and then another couple more seconds for Julie to type it in. So we'll wait and see if she comments back on it.
Speaker 1:But for those in the audience, the question is the challenge for you right now is to go to Terry's profile, terry Bean, and see if you're not connected to him. What is the button that you were seeing? Does it say follow or does it say connect? And Julie says yes. So I'm going to assume that means that she is looking at your profile and she is seeing follow. So if people want to connect with you, terry, I always like to tell them click on the more button and then underneath that you'll see an option. They will either say personalized invite or connect, and that's a little backdoor way into connecting with our good friend Terry being here.
Speaker 2:Backdoor way into connecting with our good friend Terry being here. We have 1987 mutual connections.
Speaker 1:Is that it we have?
Speaker 2:more mutual connections than like half of the LinkedIn population has connections.
Speaker 1:We know a lot of the same people, so it's great to see and I see a lot of people commenting and jumping in this now and letting us know. Yes, that's the default button on there, All right. So I want to go back to your company page now, Terry, because I want to ask the question if people are interested in working with you and doing business with you, can you remind us what are those services and offerings that you have?
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to go to my LinkedIn company page. I was going to be embarrassed and ashamed, so thank you for that. I was like, oh no, oh no, oh no, I have one, brenda, because we don't like grayscale buildings, right?
Speaker 2:No, we don't have the gray buildings, but, yeah, I don't use that well. So my primary world and it's so funny, I mentioned that I was going to be revamping this the three things that I really focus on are developing people, developing their brand right, and it's really the reach and the understanding and getting the information out, and it's developing the team inside of the organization, the team inside of the organization. So I coach, I train and then I do a lot of keynote speaking. And if it was, if you said just do one, I would say I probably keynote speaking a smidge better than coaching, but I really do enjoy both of those things quite a bit and I like making that impact. And it's fascinating to me from a coaching perspective because I used to have on my LinkedIn. It said if you ask 10 people, what is Terry Bean do You'll get?
Speaker 2:10 smiles and nine different answers and I thought that was so great. I was so proud of myself with all that cleverness, and then I realized that the joke was on me right. That's not a good way to stand out, but I'm a really good listener. You'll feel heard. I have a huge capacity for understanding, so you'll feel understood. And then I've got some really actionable ideas and tips that I offer, and sometimes those are connections to people and sometimes it's do this and do this kind of stuff. But that's the world I plan.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and, by the way, I'm going to give a shout out to Terry Bean for his speaker reel as well. By the way, I don't know if you knew this, terry, but whenever I refer to you inside my house, it's always Terry Bean. I never just say Terry, I'm not just going to go talk to my friend. If I ask my daughter right now, I'm going to talk to Terry. What's his last name? Bean, she will know you like that, terry Bean, terry Bean, and you're like a celebrity. I don't just say Terry, I say Terry Bean.
Speaker 1:So for those of you who are not in the Terry Bean fan club yet and you haven't heard Terry speak on a stage, do yourself a favor and watch his speaker reel. You go to his website and just click under I think it was under speaking. It's the first video in there and I think he did a really nice job of capturing the essence of what you do and the value you deliver on stages to audience, and just a bit of that magic for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of seeing Terry talk. But if you get the chance to see Terry Bean at a live event, do yourself a favor and go, because you will leave feeling inspired, connected and just gaining really great insight. So I just really want to I think I've given you a recommendation saying all of these things. If not, I'm going to pull the transcript and drop a recommendation into you as soon as we're done here today.
Speaker 2:You know I didn't know this until recently, but you can feature a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. You know that, of course, but did you know that my featured recommendation on LinkedIn as of three weeks ago is a recommendation you wrote?
Speaker 1:I did not. This is like news. You're hearing this here first everyone. So wait, let's demonstrate. We're going to do a quick little LinkedIn demo for our audience before we wrap up here today. So I'm going to go to your profile right now, and some people may not even be aware that you can do this. And, gosh, since you're telling me, I want to show it in action here. So I'm on your profile, so you're saying it's in your featured section.
Speaker 2:It should be in my featured section. Yeah, oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:You all look at this. This is exciting, right there featured. So this was in 2019 and the same thing I. You know I think I've said it in the show here today You're one of the first people I saw on social media when social media was getting bigger and that's really cool to see. So you selected that and put that in your featured section as one of your recommendations. That's great.
Speaker 2:I did. I didn't. I was messing around in LinkedIn and, and, to be fair, when I became a social media expert 15, 16 years ago, it was because I wasn't afraid to push a button. I didn't think it was going to blow anything up. That was the secret to expertise all those years ago. And so I saw this and I'm like what does this do? Click Brenda's got her own featured spot on my profile.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm blushing. That's so nice. Thank you, Terry. And it's almost like an Easter egg, like when you're watching a movie and they put something in there as a nod to something else.
Speaker 2:And watching a movie and they put something in there as a nod to something else and you're like oh, you've noticed that, Thank you for doing that, Like the guys from Trading Places being and coming to America right, exactly, they were total bums, and it was such a great Easter egg.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Terry. It has been such a delight and I'm hoping that folks that are watching Weather and Live or in Playback or maybe listening to this on the podcast later we'll reach out and connect with you and I just want to say thank you again. I'm not sure when we'll see each other again, but we've been talking about getting together for a brunch or maybe an upcoming event. We'll see each other in person, but I just want to say thank you so much for coming on and joining me here today.
Speaker 2:Truly a pleasure. You're amazing. Thank you for having me and if I can be of service to you or those that support you or those you support, I'm here for it always.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you, terry, and for those that are watching us, if you enjoyed the conversation here today, we would love if you could do a favor, and that is this as soon as the video's done, playing inside of LinkedIn, at the bottom you'll see a little share icon. So click to share, and it's a really great technique, especially if you haven't posted in a really long time maybe not in the past week, not in the past month, maybe not even in the past year. You can click to share it along and when you do, if you use the at sign, you can tag Terry and at Brenda Moller tag both of us in there. Then we'll get notification that you talked about us. We'll come and jump in and add a comment on it and maybe, when you share that video along, share something that you learned.
Speaker 1:Maybe you are at the start of your self-employed journey and you're getting some inspiration and some courage for saying no to the wrong clients at the beginning, or getting your website up and going, or building your network with coopetition, if you will, or others that are there. So, whatever those key takeaways are, include those in there, and you never know who you're going to help with that. And going back to that karma element, terry, of paying it forward and helping others.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that's the way to do it. I love that. I love it.
Speaker 1:Good. Thank you all for watching, Thank you, Terry for being on, and I wish everyone a wonderful day and stay connected out there. Everyone Take care.
